15 DFS Golf Picks and Tips for The Northern Trust

Daily Fantasy Golf Tips

It feels like it was The Masters just last week, but here we are in early August with all four majors over with, and now it’s time to gear up for the playoffs to see who wins the FedEx Cup and takes home the higher than ever $15M prize money. This week features the vast majority of the best players in the world who will do battle at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey. There are just three playoff events this year and not four like in past years with the Dell Technologies Championship being cut in 2019, and the playoffs begin as per usual with The Northern Trust.

Liberty National is a track that measures 7,370 years, is a par 71, and we are looking at bentgrass for the greens this week. The field is mid-size at 121 players, it has a maximum capacity of 125 but Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson, Rafa Cabrera Bello, and Sam Burns have elected to take this week off – the latter three have thrown in the towel on their seasons except for maybe Bello who might be eligible to play next week as a top 70 player in the FedEx Cup standings (he currently sits 59th), and Casey should make it to the TOUR Championship, so he’s just resting. The top 70 plus ties will make the cut after round 2 on Friday, and there is no secondary cut on Saturday following round 3 as the playoff events are all MDF-free. J.T. Poston is coming off his first-ever PGA Tour win – propelling him into the 27th spot in the FedEx Cup standings and is in the field again this week to try to improve on that ranking. The key stats to focus on this week are Strokes Gained: Ball Striking, Par 4s Gained, Greens in Regulation Gained, Par 5s Gained, and Sand Saves.

Let’s get to my picks for this week, you can take a look at some of my very favorite players for The Northern Trust – my top 10 favorite golfers to do well in the tournament and 5 value picks (in no particular order), and I include player salaries for both DraftKings and FanDuel as well.

10 Players Who Are Poised to Finish Strong This Week

Webb Simpson (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,400, FanDuel – $11,200) – Is scorching hot right now with back to back runner up finishes at the WGC-FedEx St.Jude Invitational and Wyndham Championship, and also had a runner up finish in June at the Canadian Open so he appears to be due for a win. The worst finish in his last 9 starts is a 30th so his consistency has been most impressive since The Masters. Was 15th the last time a PGA event was held on this course back in 2013 for The Barclays.

Brooks Koepka (Salaries: DraftKings – $12,000, FanDuel – $12,200) – Is expensive at $12K+ this week but he’s worth the high price tags as he’s coming off the win two weeks ago the WGC event, has an impressive three wins in total on the season, and plays his best in the biggest events and this week falls into that category.

Rory McIlory (Salaries: DraftKings – $11,400, FanDuel – $12,000) – Rory roared back in his last start after a missed cut in his native Ireland at The Open Championship by earning a 4th at the WGC event, thanks to his round 3 score of 62. Has two wins on the season, was 19th here in 2013, and these may be meaningless stats and could be just pattern observations – but he had a 2nd and a 5th after his previous two 4th place finishes earlier this year.

Justin Rose (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,600, FanDuel – $11,500) – Has a win this season, 6 top 10’s, and was runner up in 2013 on this track. Has played some solid golf this season, and is coming off an 11th at the WGC event. His last top 10 finish was a 3rd in June at the U.S. Open, but he’s perfectly capable of earning another one this week.

Jon Rahm (Salaries: DraftKings – $10,400, FanDuel – $11,700) – Since the U.S. Open, he has four top 7’s (two of the events were Euro ones though, mind you), and is coming off a 7th at the WGC event two weeks ago. Has two wins this season, and is always a major threat to win on any given week. The only knock against him is his lack of experience at Liberty National.

Rickie Fowler (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,300, FanDuel – $11,100) – Has a great track record on this course, and was 9th here in 2013. Won earlier this year, has 7 top 10’s, and is coming off a 6th place finish at The Open Championship – his first top 10 since May. Is surely hungry to win again, especially at a playoff event.

Patrick Cantlay (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,200, FanDuel – $11,300) – Has cooled off a bit since his fireball April and May but is still playing some solid golf as of late, and is coming off a 12th place finish at the WGC event. Has a solid all-around game, is sitting 6th in FedEx Cup points, and is a great high-end value play this week.

Justin Thomas (Salaries: DraftKings – $10,000, FanDuel – $11,400) – JT has been very consistent recently with finishes ranging from 9th to 12th in his last three starts. Has yet to win this season and is running out of time, so he should have lots of motivation this week and turn in four solid scorecards. 

Tommy Fleetwood (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,800, FanDuel – $11,000) – Fleetwood has yet to miss a cut this season with 18 straight events where he’s earned a paycheck, and is playing his best golf right now with a 2nd at The Open Championship and was 4th two weeks ago at the WGC tournament. Had two top 11th’s last year in the playoffs, and his worst finish in the four events was a 24th – so he’s a solid playoff performer.

Billy Horschel (Salaries: DraftKings – $8,000, FanDuel – $9,800) – Horschel is a late-season magician, and it propelled him to win a FedEx Cup championship not too many years ago. Really like his pricing this week especially with a 9th and a 6th in his last two starts. Will be highly owned this week – that’s the only drawback for investing into Billy-Ho for this tournament.

5 Value Pick Players That Support the High-End Players In Lineups

Jim Furyk (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,100, FanDuel – $8,600) – Has been consistently in the late ’20s/early ’30s since late May, and had a 13th at the Charles Schwab Challenge to start a sound stretch of six events. Was 6th here in 2013, is coming off a 27th at the WGC event, and projects to have another excellent week come Sunday evening.

Jason Kokrak (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,400, FanDuel – $9,200) – Despite missing the cut at the Travelers Championship – it’s the only missed cut of his 20 event season. Is coming off a 6th at the Wyndham Championship, was 9th here in 2013, and all signs point to a sparkling finish for him this week.

Joaquin Niemann (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,500, FanDuel – $9,100) – Has been playing some incredible golf since late May with four top 13th’s, and another four top 31st’s. Was 13th last week thanks to his closing round 63, and he will be hungry to do well this week as he’s 74th in the FedEx Cup standings and will need to move up at least 4 spots to get the green light to play next week.

Emiliano Grillo (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,000, FanDuel – $8,300) – Was a disaster at The Open Championship but rebounded nicely with an 18th in his last start at the Barracuda Championship. Has only missed two cuts this season in 20 events, should have a respectable finish this week, and comes in at a good price point.

Sungjae Im (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,500, FanDuel – $9,300) – Im has profiled much the same as Niemann above lately except he’s 23rd in the FedEx Cup standings thanks to competing in a very high 31 tournaments this season – he apparently doesn’t like to relax very much and is focused on making a name for himself which I respect very much. Has 7 top 10’s this season and one of them came last week where he finished 6th at the Wyndham Championship.

Get your playoff thinking hat on to construct some solid lineups this week, and get into the green in many of your contests!